A twist on the rainy-day project: homemade pretzels
Chronicle reader Heidi Mitchell sent in a recipe she recently tried for homemade pretzels. She found it on the Food Network’s website, and said it’s fairly easy and yielded a special family treat — an ideal project for a rainy afternoon.
Requests
Nikki Cook called saying she had sweet potato hush puppies at a restaurant in New Orleans and has been wanting to make them ever since. Readers?
Warm the milk in a saucepan until it is about 110 degrees; pour into a medium bowl and sprinkle in the yeast, let soften about 2 minutes then stir in the brown sugar and 1 cup flour with a wooden spoon. Dice 2 tablespoons butter and soften; stir into the mix. Add the remaining 1¼ cups of flour and the fine salt to make a sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed, until smooth but slightly tacky, about 5 minutes. Shape into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and grease a large baking sheet. Punch the dough down to deflate it, then turn out on lightly floured surface. Divide into six pieces. Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into a 30-inch rope. Form the rope into a pretzel shape.
Dissolve baking soda in 3 cups of warm water. Dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Bake about 10-12 minutes.